


How to Save a Life

by badgerling



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-19
Updated: 2012-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-31 11:25:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/343531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerling/pseuds/badgerling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim knows the stupidest things he's ever done in his life involve trying to save Jason Todd.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Save a Life

**Author's Note:**

> from a comment_fic prompt: "DCU, Jason Todd/Tim Drake, "Let me help you, Jason.""

_right between the lines of fear and blame_

"Let me help you, Jason." It is a stupid thing to say, a stupid offer to make, and Tim knows he's asking for trouble just opening his mouth. All thoughts about secret identities went out the window the second Jason fell out of the sky, broken and bleeding, tattered remains of a jump line in his hands. He is just Jason now, the guy who had nearly killed him once, had been a thorn in his side since, but now he's family.

A distant cousin, sure, the crazy one no one wants to invite to Christmas and he keeps showing up anyway, but still family.

Tim doesn't get an answer, not in words. Jason snarls, a feral noise that doesn't sound right coming from a human throat, and he tries to stand. He actually makes it for almost five seconds, but then his knee makes an audible popping sound, and Tim catches him before he can hit the ground.

  
_and you begin to wonder why you came_   


It's Alfred that comes over with medical knowledge and years worth of patching up the world's most stubborn man, and Tim swears him to secrecy. Jason's only just got out of prison, Dick still hasn't forgiven him, and Damien is just a brat, and Tim knows that Jason wouldn't want them knowing. Alfred suggests taking Jason to a hospital, but Tim knows all the questions they'd ask that he can't or won't answer, and Alfred knows them too. His suggestion is just that, merely a suggestion.

Hours later when Jason's ribs are wrapped, his cuts and bruises tended to, he's passed out from the pain, and Alfred's managed to cobble together a knee brace, Tim tries to find something to do to distract himself. He nearly burns the apartment down with a microwave dinner, the only thing on television is some infomercial for car cleaner, and he can't keep his eyes open long enough to read a book.

He finally falls asleep wondering why he cares, why it matters that Jason make it through this relatively intact. It is, his mind supplies, because they're both superfulous now. Neither one of them Robin, neither one of them really comfortable in Gotham. That thought leaves an unsettled feeling in his stomach.

  
_and he begins to raise his voice_   


He wakes up to find Jason standing over him. Glaring. Or maybe that's his default expression, Tim's never really figured that out. He brings a hand up, rubbing his eyes, feeling cramped and uncomfortable because his couch really wasn't built for sitting let along sleeping. "You shouldn't be up," he says through a yawn.

"It's been two days." That makes Tim stop and stare before reaching over to check the watch he'd left next to the book he couldn't read. It takes him a second to do the math, to figure out that, technically, two and a half days have passed. His stomach growls just to make sure he gets how much time has passed.

"You still shouldn't be up," he says, pushing himself to his feet. He sways for a second, wondering why he's unsteady on his feet while Jason looks surprisingly sturdy. There's a faint pain in his right arm that makes him wonder if Alfred drugged him while he was asleep, but he's also been out every night for the past week and it's not like he can sleep during the day. Exhaustion is far more likely than crafty butlers. Right?

"When was the last time you slept, boy wonder?" Jason asks as Tim manages to make his way toward the kitchen where there is coffee and maybe some cereal. He'll need to go get groceries or call Alfred and beg for a hot meal. He glances up at Jason with narrowed eyes. He might have brought him here, but that doesn't mean he trusts him.

"Why do you care, Todd?"

"Why do _you_?" And Tim doesn't know the answer to that.

  
_you lower yours and grant him one last choice_   


Turns out, Tim didn't need to call Alfred after all. He shows up at Tim's door carrying two meals like he's Gotham's own Meals-On-Wheels-for-Starving-Batchildren. Jason gets a lecture about being up on his feet, something that makes Tim smirk and actually feel normal for the first time in forever. Jason's eyes narrow when he catches sight of Tim and he's pretty sure he's going to pay for that later, but Jason holds his hands up in surrender and lets Alfred direct him to the couch.

The meals are easy to reheat, and Alfred stays only long enough to make sure both of them have drinks and utensils and don't need to get up for anything at the moment. They watch TV until both of them give in to exhaustion (in Tim's case) and painkillers (in Jason's case).

Tim wakes up the next day to find Jason gone like he'd never been there to begin with.

  
_and i would have stayed up with you all night_   


Jason doesn't answer any of his or Barbara's calls over the comms. Not that that's anything new. Jason's never been big on talking on the damn things, and from what Babs says, he hadn't been all that fond of it when he had been Robin. Tim tells himself that all he wants is an update on Jason's status. It's been weeks, and that's the only reason he's lurking on rooftops in the pouring rain, looking for a flash of red in the distance.

For once, he's thankful he's wearing a full cowl. At least it's not as cold as it used to be, and he doesn't get the chance to follow that train of thought before strong hands grip his shoulders, pull him off the edge and push him up against an air vent. Jason looks remarkable healthy for a kid who looked half dead just a couple of weeks ago, which really shouldn't surprise Tim. He'd been full dead once upon a time.

He opens his mouth to ask Jason what he's doing, how he's doing, how he's feeling, but he doesn't get the chance for that either. He finds Jason's mouth pressed against his first, and the older boy bites a little as he kisses, and it hurts and Tim's pretty sure he's bleeding. That's confirmed when he can taste Jason mixed with copper, and logically he knows he should stop, but that taste is pretty damn intoxicating.

Jason pulls back first, a tiny bit of Tim's blood on his lips, or maybe Tim's imagining things. Jason touches his mouth, and that spot of red is gone. He lifts his eyebrows behind the domino mask and says, "I don't need you to save me, baby bird."

Then there's a click of his jump line, and Jason's gone again.

**Author's Note:**

> DC Comics owns them. Song is "How to Save a Life" by The Fray.


End file.
